This years draft was very enjoyable. A few things stuck out to me this year:

Because of electronic media, fans are more informed

I have been a member of this board for a few years. I've been talking draft on various message boards since 1996. While opinions are what they are, the knowledge of the fan base has increased among draftniks and also more casual draft fans alike. I can tell the latter by my conversations with a my friends and colleagues. There is a lot of information out there, and with social media like bogs, better NFLN programming, twitter accounts and even fan run football sites, the sharing of information is at an all time high.

The game of football is becoming more international

Ziggy Ansah- Ghana. Menelik Watson- England. Bjoern Werner- Germany. Margus Hunt- Estonia. All of these guys were went gone by the 21st pick of the 2nd round. Amazing when you think about it.

The gap between the draft pundits and team GMs is growing exponentially.

It's funny, as the draft coverage increase, it appears that the draft pundits know less and less about team needs and how teams have players ranked. For example, the QB that was taken first wasn't ranked in the top 6 only about two months ago. And a "top five" prospect on "everyone's board" not only fell to number 23, two DTs including a 3 technique like Floyd was taken ahead of him. Finally, two QBs once billed to be first rounders both lasted until the 4th round. The 4th round! It' more and more evident that teams have shut their doors to these name dropping draft pundits who have Phd's in Monkey See Monkey Rank. What these guys need to do to save face is do their OWN ranking and stop trying to be psychics.

Teams have adjusted positively to the new rookie wage salary structure.

This was a great move by the NFL. Quick, who had a terrible draft? Pretty much no one did. Even the draft most rank as the worst, the Cowboys, actually got good players. It was the draft strategy that was questioned. That's because teams are now able to move around more freely to get players they want/need. That and the fact that teams appear to care even less what the pundits say.

__________________Kaepernick is this years pat white. Thin, gimmick offense and doesn't possess an nfl arm. The ncaa constantly regurgitates clones of past players and amazingly enough, tricks some people into thinking they're better than their cloned half. Kaepernick was a complete waste of a senior bowl qb spot. A better qb will come from the east/west shrine or whatever they're calling it now...count on it

The gap between the draft pundits and team GMs is growing exponentially.

It's funny, as the draft coverage increase, it appears that the draft pundits know less and less about team needs and how teams have players ranked. For example, the QB that was taken first wasn't ranked in the top 6 only about two months ago. And a "top five" prospect on "everyone's board" not only fell to number 23, two DTs including a 3 technique like Floyd was taken ahead of him. Finally, two QBs once billed to be first rounders both lasted until the 4th round. The 4th round! It' more and more evident that teams have shut their doors to these name dropping draft pundits who have Phd's in Monkey See Monkey Rank. What these guys need to do to save face is do their OWN ranking and stop trying to be psychics.

Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that scouts and "anonymous sources" have figured out that they can lie to beat writers and other pundits, and those pundits will adjust their mock drafts accordingly. The Bills did an especially great job of this.

I still prefer a Sat-Sunday Draft fest over the Thu-Fri-Sat one.
What's wrong with Sundays & football?

I still dislike both network's coverage in the latter rounds when picks come about every 2 minutes.

TALK ABOUT EACH ONE please.
Is that too much to ask from them, to talk about what's happening?

By the way, I don't see a gap between GMs and pundits "growing".
Go back and review drafts in the 90's, 80's, 70's... there have always been some serious surprises, questionable picks, both good and bad.

I think the pundits were off this year because it was a peculiar year. Look at last years draft. I'm willing to bet aside from the draft day trades, the majority of people were on target. Obviously once you're a dozen picks into the draft everything goes to hell.

They'll never start it on a Friday. Friday is a horrible night for TV, and why would the NFL put their premier offseason event on during when casual fans are out actually living a life?

What's the difference? They start at 6:30pm on Friday anyway. Do you really think the public would be opposed to watching the first day of the draft on a Friday night? Hell, how many sports bars would have their TVs locked on NFLN/ESPN?

__________________Kaepernick is this years pat white. Thin, gimmick offense and doesn't possess an nfl arm. The ncaa constantly regurgitates clones of past players and amazingly enough, tricks some people into thinking they're better than their cloned half. Kaepernick was a complete waste of a senior bowl qb spot. A better qb will come from the east/west shrine or whatever they're calling it now...count on it

The rookie wage scale definitely has affected how teams draft. Teams can now pick BPA, instead of taking a guy who would be worth paying the amount he would cost at that spot.
Two guards went in the top 10, no way does that happen 5 years ago no matter how good of a prospect they might be.

I loved the old days. Saturday rounds 1-3 and Sunday 4-7. Something about hanging out all day watching, talking football made it like a super bowl day. But I understand why they moved it around. That one year when the first round was 6 hours killed it for every one.

I just hate the the west coast get the shaft. Not home by the time the draft starts on Thursday and on Friday it starts at 3:30!

I loved the old days. Saturday rounds 1-3 and Sunday 4-7. Something about hanging out all day watching, talking football made it like a super bowl day. But I understand why they moved it around. That one year when the first round was 6 hours killed it for every one.

I just hate the the west coast get the shaft. Not home by the time the draft starts on Thursday and on Friday it starts at 3:30!

I'd love a a Friday, Sat and Sun draft.

__________________Kaepernick is this years pat white. Thin, gimmick offense and doesn't possess an nfl arm. The ncaa constantly regurgitates clones of past players and amazingly enough, tricks some people into thinking they're better than their cloned half. Kaepernick was a complete waste of a senior bowl qb spot. A better qb will come from the east/west shrine or whatever they're calling it now...count on it

I loved the old days. Saturday rounds 1-3 and Sunday 4-7. Something about hanging out all day watching, talking football made it like a super bowl day. But I understand why they moved it around. That one year when the first round was 6 hours killed it for every one.

I just hate the the west coast get the shaft. Not home by the time the draft starts on Thursday and on Friday it starts at 3:30!

People on the east coast complain about having to stay up until midnight on Thursday, and feel like they're catering to the west coast.

__________________Kaepernick is this years pat white. Thin, gimmick offense and doesn't possess an nfl arm. The ncaa constantly regurgitates clones of past players and amazingly enough, tricks some people into thinking they're better than their cloned half. Kaepernick was a complete waste of a senior bowl qb spot. A better qb will come from the east/west shrine or whatever they're calling it now...count on it

What's the difference? They start at 6:30pm on Friday anyway. Do you really think the public would be opposed to watching the first day of the draft on a Friday night? Hell, how many sports bars would have their TVs locked on NFLN/ESPN?

Have you ever wondered why no networks run new episodes of their really good shows on Friday night? The public might not explicitly say they're opposed, but the ratings would suffer. I understand you might prefer a Fri-Sat-Sun format, but it will never happen.